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This scenario is painfully common. The follow-up season of your top TV show premieres online, and your mind is full of hopeful expectation. The debut season ended so perfectly: narrative threads were dangled enticingly, and a key figure faced a shocking fate – or did they?. During the hiatus, you delved into fan discussions with fellow enthusiasts to find some Easter egg clues shedding light on future developments.

And then season two’s premiere is a damp squib. The writing appears robotic and uninspired. Cut to the second episode, a beloved actor's character acts in a way that you and Reddit user Fishy2345 agree is totally out of character. As the story progresses, it’s clear that the showrunners have had collective amnesia around the storylines aggressively signposted in season one. And by the disappointing finale, you privately hope it had ended sooner.

The Curse of Overextension

Wishing for cancellation can only be retrospective; most fans protest when their favorite shows are canned before they can get off the ground. Look at Kaos, a clever mythological satire with Jeff Goldblum, which was binned by Netflix due to low viewing figures. Yet audiences can console themselves that their enjoyment of the series won’t have been muddied by a sophomore slump.

Considering the thriller Yellowjackets, I now wish it had been a limited series. The first season boasted an inventive concept, with ten flawless installments. Aircraft disaster leaves a teen girls' team isolated in 1996. Skilled performers (with Juliette Lewis, Lauren Ambrose and Sophie Thatcher) portrayed the team then and now. Numerous awards recognition occurred, creators confidently planned five seasons to tell the story in necessary detail. But last week, it was announced that it would end with season four. This news brought me relief.

Gaten Matarazzo, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp in the forthcoming fifth season of Stranger Things.

The show has made narrative choices that have undermined its heart. Rather than leading with the girls’ return home, and watching how they deal with their horrific new secrets, the story grew padded and excessive. This involved a wearying pattern of highlighting added personalities (such as Shauna’s two-dimensional daughter Callie) with minimal impact on the main narrative. It's disappointing, and watching a beloved program become tedious is sad.

An Increasing Pattern

However, Yellowjackets isn't alone. Shows such as Emily in Paris, House of the Dragon, Squid Game and Stranger Things have lost the shock of the new, and embraced predictable tropes. Occasionally, series should end on a high note.

Indeed, pleasures exist in single-season stories. Looking at Sharp Objects, I May Destroy You, and Adolescence, writers understand when narratives find completion. Yet the spell breaks for programs including Big Little Lies, initially a one-season story, return repeatedly with declining quality. Maybe Adolescence's creators hesitated about continuing.

The Perfect Example

I wish Yellowjackets could have been a one-and-done series, living rent-free in our imaginations, unresolved threads included. My favorite TV show of all time has played out like that. The classic teen series, the ideal adolescent show, concluded after a single run but achieved film-like breadth: its characters were difficult and contradictory, the cinematography was perfectly autumnal, and the dialogue was untethered from the normal “teen speak written by a 35-year-old” trope. Its final episode was bitterly unresolved, but that is perfectly in keeping with the reality of youth queries staying forever open. Following 18 excellent installments (plus one weak one), I was heartbroken and took to writing season two fan fiction myself to resolve lingering mysteries. It might only live on an old hard drive, it demonstrates television's powerful connection.

The Special Relationship

If writers recall the sacred audience-series connection, more series can conclude appropriately.

• This writer writes about the arts, music and fashion.